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Mombassa Welcomes Careful Drivers
Keep it Clean, folks, from now on the HSP can be considered very spoilery. I hope you're all mining our new source of canon like the Covenant mine for an Ark. And that you're linked into the network like an Engineer! That you're as suspicious as NMPD!
I've been monitoring the forums, guiding you with the eloquence of the Super directing me to the the audiophile achievement for my 360 to crash and . . . I'm breathing, I am a calm blue ocean.
Here's what I've found.
-Jillybean
Black Asgard (darke127@yahoo.com) writes:
While playing the newly released Halo 3: ODST, I paid close attention to the story and design with the scrutiny of a writer. What I believe I've discovered is that ODST pays abundant homage to the first book of the Divine Comedy, Dante Aligeri's 'Inferno'.
Listen:
The Inferno, as I recall it (having read it about 2 years ago after enjoying 'La Vida Nuova'), begins with Dante wandering lost and alone, in a 'dark wood'. It is night when you awaken in New Mombasa. The city towers above you not like a frightening wood.
The first helpful hand you encounter is that of Vergil, who guides you to supposed safety--Vergil, the Superintendent of New Mombasa, who shares the name of the Roman poet who wrote the Aeneid (about the Hero who survived the Trojan massacre (perhaps an allusion to Buck and Reach?)). Vergil guides the Rookie, like Dante, through 9 levels; the 9 circles of Hell.
New Mombasa burns, like the common image of hell. It is dark, dangerous, horrifying. And Vergil guides you gently, offering help with cryptic statements (in game, it is composed of the Bumble-bee-esque conglomeration of audio bytes).
Later, as you encounter the final lost squad mate, you descend to the 9th level of the city substructure where it is frozen; that is to say, not unlike Satan's frosty chamber. For what seems to be little to nor reason (as far as I could tell).
Food for thought. ;)
Black Asgard
The discussion is here - what parallels can you find between warthogs, wolves and lions?
-Jillybean
Are you a good samaritan? Do Engineers run from you, or can you creep a little closer? A little discussion on the forum shows that even the most bloodthirsty ODST can turn Attenborough . . .
xmoosev3 (moose636@hotmail.com) writes:
I remember dead elites on the ground inside the circle. At this time it was only my second encounter with the engineers and I thought they were bad and wasted most of my ammo trying to kill them. It took me awhile to catch on that they weren't attacking me.
Then I realised perhaps they were mourning the elites.
-Jillybean
You should all have noticed them, but Ragashingo was first on the forum to post about the glowing triangular tags that you can see on VISR mode.
Nidonocu has a theory about them:
Nidonocu (nidonocu@gmail.com) writes:
I believe [the triangle tags] are supposed to be markers left by the Engineers as they work in searching the city. There might be some reference to them in one of the Halo books when it mentioned Engineers and their search of another human city for Forerunner artifacts.
However, there are some interesting ones which are explained by the plot of both the main game and the audio logs as time goes on. There are triangular arrows by a large circle in one room, triangles as you say by the dead Elites and triangles featureing the SuperIntendent's emblem.
My guesses: The arrows by the large circle are ships in orbit of either earth or a Halo ring. the triangles by the Elites are some kind of 'Rest in Peace' style momorial by the Engineers to those that are now also fighting the Covenant. The ones featuring the SI are of course, reference to the one free Engineer who is interfacing with the SI and probably relaying some of that information back to his fellow Engineers.
Do Engineers mourn Elites? Can you sell Engineer song like whale song?
All I can say is, I'll be in my bunk. With Romeo. He needs some TLC. Wake me if you need me . . .
-Jillybean
